tbrillian

October 11, 2012 at 4:14pm

The list shouldn't be titled 100 greatest, it should be 100 most popular, which is what it was, there is no possible way to get an accurate list of 100 greatest, I suppose the best way would be to have the all the guitar players who are in this countdown and still alive to vote on it, but even then, it comes down to preference.

Guitar George

October 11, 2012 at 2:48pm

Well, I suppose EVH is as good a choice as any, not that I'm a big EVH fan. Actually, all my favorites either weren't in the contest at all (Roy Buchanan, Link Wray)....or never made it past the first round (Leslie West, Rory Gallagher).

That said, I think the winner really should have been Chuck Berry. He started it all, as far as rock guitar goes. Is he currently the greatest guitarist on the planet? Heck no. But let's be honest....who doesn't throw in at least 1 Chuck Berry lick, from time-to-time? Even EVH throws in a Chuck Berry lick, from time-to-time.

Or, as I heard Chuck himself bark at a pick-up band who messed up while backing him at a concert I attended back in the 70's:

"Dammit....EVERYONE knows CHUCK BERRY!!!"

EatPills

October 11, 2012 at 2:46pm

LOL at this list. Zappa not even in the top 5 is just absolutely hilarious. Seriously how is Vai above Zappa? Are you people brain dead?

bluescat

October 11, 2012 at 2:35pm

I don't how they came up with this list but it is screwed up! I have never even heard of some of these yahoo's before! The great players are all over the list instead of being in the top 20 or so. EVH is a good player but SRV and a few others are better. There is more to being a great player than just being fast!

MetalBret

October 11, 2012 at 12:57pm

from "rockbotTOM" sucking EVHs meat to the other fanboy mancrushes here this list and comments make me sick... AlexSkolnick is at LEAST top 10.. if not top 5.. NO ONE in Metallahasbeen belongs on the list..Mustaine at 12 is a Fn joke... EVH is a fingertap fraud and to not have Marty.F. is sad.. this shows two things....
1- the readers of this mag are total morons...
2- the people in charge of this are dumber than the readers..

i did a poll of the top 100 music mags... you didnt place on the list....
but "rockbotTOM" got #1 on the "Who Would Blow A Guy" poll!!

rumblecat

October 11, 2012 at 12:41pm

If I was a Guitar World editor I'd not publish that list.
Van Hairdo and Brian May more influential than Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray, and on and on ... simply not based in reality.

This poll / contest was nothing more than a bot vote stuffing exercise.

rockbotTOM

October 11, 2012 at 10:51am

Regardless of what ANYONE thinks on EVH, IMO, he is THE most influential guitarist in the history of guitar.

I would also go the distance to say he, again IMO, is the most complete guitar player in history.

I will list my top 5 again:

1. EVH
1a Hendrix
3. Clapton
4. Page
5. BB King

3PuttChuck

October 11, 2012 at 9:39am

Again, if you want better results, the format needs to change. Have readers put their own favorites in order of say top 50. Then, tabulate them down to average ranking for top 20. One list per user name. That would give the best representation of what we believe as a community. Never will be perfect as you can't please everyone all the time. But it would result in a list where people would accept it easier. By the way, Vernon Reid at #26 ?!?!?!? Hahhhhhh....hahhhhh....aahhhhahhh....bwahhhhhh...hahhh!!!

rockbotTOM

October 11, 2012 at 7:22am

I can't believe some of the posts on here. People saying Eddie is limited, doesn't have a whole lot of tricks, aka one-trick-pony. Saying he isn't worthy and such. Ugh!

If any of you know a lick about guitar innovation, influence, diversity, technique, speed, accuracy, rhythm, sound, style, etc, you'd know that Eddie possesses ALL OF THE ABOVE!!! If you you don't think so, you're an Eddie hater, jealous or just out right guitar illiterate!

It's ok to have an opinion as to who should be the victor of the poll, but to say Eddie won without good enough chops is outright STUPIDITY!!

Give credit where credit's due. Eddie was a great pick. Put it this way, I'm glad he beat out May, who I believe, shouldn't have made it this far. I mean, come on! Brian May getting past Hendrix and Page??? Are you kidding me???

BTSLG

October 11, 2012 at 1:49am

It's a shame Marty Friedman isn't even on the list ,especially considering Jason Becker, which is slightly better, is 46 and Dave Mustaine is 12, which is way way worse in my opinion , does guitar world hold a grudge against people currently in japan?

GEENGADE

October 11, 2012 at 1:43am

Now that GW did a study on us. Their magazine will now reflect how to better sell a single issue. Everyone has given up information so valuable that they have researched us like lab rats. But there still one question. What will GW do for you today?

I hope GW will have more to gain and get more subscribers from this experience. And this is will be the last time we will probably see a contest like this. The world has opened up to GW.

GEENGADE My first concert Black Sabbath age 13 1975 Paranoid

Dreamtheater247

October 11, 2012 at 12:37am

Franckirk.. you know nothing about guitar and i signed up on this site just to tell you off. Gilbert can TAP WHILE PLAYING GUITAR and Steve Vai is undebatably a master of guitar.. He is a legend.. Him and John petrucci are my favorites =/. Hendrix's style was unique but I definitely wouldn't call him the best, I don't even like most of his music but i respect him.

Franckirk

October 10, 2012 at 11:21pm

Shit like Paul Gilbert and Steve Vay in the top 25? My god! Kirk Hammett and B.B King are better than them!!!

Franckirk

October 10, 2012 at 11:13pm

Well, first: Eddie Van Halen? we all know that Jimi Hendrix was the best ... is a guitar god!!!
and shit like Paul Gilbert and Steve Vay in the top 25? My god! Clapton and Angus Young are better than them!

qqqq

October 10, 2012 at 9:39pm

Jake E Lee made the bracket, but not the top 100? Alex Lifeson in the top 10? Brian May beats Jimmy Paige? Not sure how people were voting, but I ended up hating this poll.

IrishConnor1994

October 10, 2012 at 7:21pm

Joe Perry in 75th place?? Really?

oneunder

October 10, 2012 at 7:08pm

There is no number 1. Every great guitarist has their own unique contribution to the guitar world. Grow up people.

DKAXE

October 10, 2012 at 6:52pm

The problem with the poll was the match-ups. For example, having Rory Gallagher face Jimmy Page in the first round is like having the 76's play the Wizards and the Heat play the Bulls in the first round and then ranking the winner of the 76's-Wizards contest higher than the loser of the Bulls-Heat contest. Several guitarists made the top 20 based on weak match-ups along the way and several of the all-time best were defeated early on.

Next time they do this I would like to see realistic seeding instead of trying to match-up by style.

ipsofacto

October 11, 2012 at 5:24am

EDITED:

With the tournament format that this poll had, it could logically be deduced (with a reasonable amount of scientific certainty) that the overall winner (EVH) would most likely defeat every other player on the list if matched-up against them.

However, the player that should have been matched-up against Eddie in the final is still in question due to the fact that Brian May cheated in his rounds against Page and Hendrix using his Facebook and Twitter accounts to solicit votes.

If May had not done so, he most certainly would have been defeated by either Page in the quarterfinals or Hendrix in the semi's...resulting in a different match-up in the finals...and maybe even a different overall winner.

Nevertheless, despite this grievous error, in NO WAY can you possibly rank the rest of the players based on the number of votes that they received (especially in the case of May). You probably had rounds varying in number of votes from merely a couple of thousand...to rounds that received more than 20,000 (from cheating).

In fairness to GW, they too probably didn't foresee the player/band FB factor. Although in the later rounds, they were in fact sending links some or all the players/bands during match-ups.

From previous comments in the poll, GW must now be aware of the number of significant players that were overlooked from their original list: Jabs, Emmett, Smith, DeMartini, Fisk, Bream...and whoever else of significance that they missed. So it seems kind of pointless to try and rank them, considering the list is significantly incomplete in the first place.

Also, I don't know all the players on the list, but I do know that several of them are fairly elementary in their playing skills and simply don't belong, in comparison to the names mentioned above. The result is a list of players and ranking order that is a complete flop all around.

One way that you could have fixed this problem (and still could) is have voters take a week and submit their rankings for the entire list. Then simply calculate the mean average rank for each player.

This method would not only add credibility to the poll, but it would also eliminate any contamination votes from external sites. NO ONE but a guitar player or a serious music lover would go to the extent of ranking 100+ players.

Could nobody on the GW staff think of this??

At any rate, as it sits now, your list of the Top 100 players has about as much credibility as Rolling Stone's version. None

ruas

October 10, 2012 at 5:44pm

Since 1978 (in my opnion) Eddie is the "greatest influencer". i'm very van halen's fan, but i know that eddie isn't greater than Jimi. Eddie can even do more things and yada yada yada but everybody knows that Jimi is the Greatest of all time.

Axemeister

October 10, 2012 at 5:09pm

This poll is pretty sad.. Its like a bunch of 13 year old girls voting for Justin Bieber as the greatest singer of all time..Guitar World is a mostly metal magazine, and their readership has dubious judging skills. Putting EVH above Jimi, Jeff Beck and several other greats is really way off-base.

No offense to Eddie, but he has a limited range of tricks and there are so many others who deserved better ratings.

Many years ago Musician Magazine published an article about an Ernie Ball NAMM party where Eddie got up on stage with Albert Lee and Steve Morse, among others.. All that Eddie could do was taps, feedback and elephant roars, while the others played circles around him in various styles.. Eddie is great, but he is not the greatest.

Sergeant3Way

October 10, 2012 at 4:45pm

Personally, my favorite guitarists are Ed and Angus. I'm satisfied that Ed won, but some of the rankings are terrible. I think, instead of an online poll, have it where there are ballots in the issue of the one month, and have people send in their votes. The results would be more based on guitar players opinions rather than just fans on the groups or bands on Facebook. Although it would be harder to tally up, it would mean better results, and less anger on the site. I do think it is strange though that May beat out many of the other amazing guitarists in this poll. It is hard to compare a lot of these players though. Different genres, styles, etc. But, in the end, I think (my opinion), Ed deserves this. He has done quite a lot. Floyd Rose, D-Tuna, guitar tone, guitar building, playing styles, techniques. He may not be the best right now, but he sure is the reason for a lot of the best players out there, past and present.

My 2 cents!

bluzmn59

October 10, 2012 at 4:23pm

The list is crap and there a lot of guitarists on that list better than EVH. And where, oh where, is Julian Bream? But this is what happens with these popularity contests.

nursetom61

October 10, 2012 at 3:40pm

I just can't believe how this poll turned out. I was truly enjoying the poll and all the aspects of it, including the posts and comments. Then the unthinkable happened. One or more FANS posted it on one or more fan sites via social media, and it became a farce. What once started as a poll amongst Guitar World readers (guitar players) turned into a contest of who had the most Facebook fans. That is when it turned ugly. I really enjoyed this poll above others because it was for GUITAR PLAYERS. The whole Facebook and Twitter debacle was an outrage, GW should just take the whole thing down and apologize to the real READERS of GW (guitar players) I mean really Brian May? EVH #1 I guess if you are looking for the #1 Tapper it would be EVH but guitarists #1 should be Hendrix or maybe Clapton,SRV,Page,any one of the three Kings, the list goes on. I know a lot of guitarists will say EVH deserves to be #1, but think about the criteria you set forth. EVH maybe top 20 but #1, no way! Hendrix has always been voted #1 for a reason.